The Staff Feedback Thread! [read the first post!]

[antemortem]

My other complaint is that you mods maintain an attitude which makes me (and probably others) feel mocked, even when I am being completely serious. And this has happened since forever. Like, you're being sarcastic, or random, which I feel is entirely out of place, seeing as your job is not to confound people or pull off stunts. Your job isn't to rule them, either.

This concerns me. Do you think you could come up with specific instances in which a member of staff has blatantly disregarded or feigned interest in a serious situation that involved you? I do believe there is a fine line between needing to secure a certain serious demeanor and when it's fine to just be human, as all members and staff alike are, but if the times you speak of required the staff member(s) in question to, at the very, very least, give you an earnest moment of their time, they should have and it's unacceptable for them to have done any less.

 

[Sydian]

I don't think I can tell you much of today's staff. I make sure to avoid contact with the mods, that's why, and why is that? Well the mods I have met in the past are the reason, who are now either gone from the community or don't maintain their title. Despite their dashing [internet] looks and attitude, it occurred to me in the past that that was just a mask they wear to hide their insecurity and selfishness, not to mention their overall bad and complex person.

I really hate that the staff back then has shaped your opinion on them now. If I ever did anything to add to that (I was modded later on in the year you joined), then I apologize. I know you said you were talking mainly about RH mods, but I still can't help but say something. I wouldn't let that turn you away from talking to current mods, though. I think the current mods are much friendlier and more approachable than the mods that were around when I joined and even when I was modded. I know that just sounds like opinion, but I think most people that were here then and still here now can agree that the current mods do come off a lot nicer than they did back then. I can think of a few examples, but it doesn't really matter since none of them are around anymore.

tl;dr I hope that you can see that the current staff is different than it was back then. We're a different group of people, so don't let the sour ones from back then let you have a bad opinion on (almost) completely new people. :)

 

[Kura]

This concerns me. Do you think you could come up with specific instances in which a member of staff has blatantly disregarded or feigned interest in a serious situation that involved you? I do believe there is a fine line between needing to secure a certain serious demeanor and when it's fine to just be human, as all members and staff alike are, but if the times you speak of required the staff member(s) in question to, at the very, very least, give you an earnest moment of their time, they should have and it's unacceptable for them to have done any less.

A perfect example waz when Luke mocked another member in his blog ages ago. The comment i wrote was " not cool, man " then he edited his whole blog so i guess he wouldnt get in trouble by hiding subliminal messages in it like the title being "kura sucks" if you only looked at the first letter of each word. I didnt report it because i thought it was childish and wasn't worth my time, but did screenshot it in case he ever hard deleted it and said it never happened. All i ever did wad stick up for the little guy. Imagine if it were a more sensitive member? I know its not applicable because he is not staff anymore, but doing that while being staff is unacceptable.We are all people and not everyone's gonna like each other but don't be catty and mock others publicly like that when you're supposed to be the guys setting things right.


I have other examples and other proof of mocked behaviour if you need it but im writing from my phone atm.

Btw the blog should still be there without the need of my screenshotlong with a couple other snarky blogs that were dine if anyone wants proof of that.
Hope this helps define what we might mean by being mocked. It should concern you as it really isnt that long ago.


Also just a question. Iknow audy does server stuff and jake does themes and back end stuff too ob pc. But what does syphiel do? I know she is a sweet girl but what is her role as h staff?

Edit: Also to make this post a bit more lighthearted:

 

[roosterman]

So one thing I notice a lot is that some staff members can be really...touchy, I guess. Lately i'm just not posting a lot on these forums because i'm afraid i'll somehow offend someone and get in another fight. This may just be me but seriously I think everyone just needs to chill out.

 

[Ivysaur]

Also just a question. Iknow audy does server stuff and jake does themes and back end stuff too ob pc. But what does syphiel do? I know she is a sweet girl but what is her role as h staff?

Jess and I mostly do the small day-to-day stuff: uploading emblems, fixing errors in themes, editing usertitles and, in general, anything that gets posted in the Admin Requests thread in the Mod lounge.

 

[moon]

So one thing I notice a lot is that some staff members can be really...touchy, I guess. Lately i'm just not posting a lot on these forums because i'm afraid i'll somehow offend someone and get in another fight. This may just be me but seriously I think everyone just needs to chill out.

Sounds like you are the touchy one ;) I wouldn't worry too much. As have already been stated kind of in this thread a few times, people don't necessarily type like they speak/act/intend. The written word tends to twist things around sometimes. But I might understand what you mean, if I get into some kind of misunderstanding or disagreement with someone online, I tend to worry more about it than I do about similar situations in real life. Probably just because I don't know the online person as well as I know real life people.

It's not just about staff; if everyone always did their best to think twice before writing something or replying to something possibly touchy-like that others have written, things would be chill. I know I should think twice a bit more often, for instance :> It's just, for staff, the imprint a badly worded or hasted post can make is a bit bigger than for a regular member maybe.


About staff being cocky, I've seen that a lot on other, newer forums. But PC has been around for quite a while now and the (old lol) admins know what they want in a moderator and most of the time have a wide group of people to choose from. They don't need to pick a power hungry person when they can pick friendly, eager people with a healthy portion of common sense built into them. So I just generally trust the H-staff to do just that. And that's that :> There will always be people who dislike others, for whatever minor reasons or events (which I want to refer to as misunderstandings because that's the case 90% of the time).


tl;dr In my world, everyone's a pony and they all eat rainbows and poop butterflies.

 

[tabor62]

Hmm, well I don't come in contact with most staff enough cuz I hole up in Trade Corner all the time. Though, what I can say is that the TC mods and TwilightBlade are awesome staff members and I haven't had any sort of problem with them before (hopefully never). Keep it up guys!

 

[Kura]

Just had another random idea I think would be nice.

Anyone ever thought of doing a Staff/Member appreciation thread in Other Trivia? I can understand it might end up getting a bit spammy so that's why I thought to put it there.. and I also understand that some people use their blogs for this, but I think it's nice for people who don't have a blog, to write something nice about the members/mods especially for thanking them for doing something they thought was outstanding or helpful?

Just a thought.

 

[Cordelia]

I disagree.

Staff don't need to be put on a pedestal by having an appreciation thread. I just like interacting with members on a normal level since I am just a member with duties to the forum.

 

[Kura]

I disagree.

Staff don't need to be put on a pedestal by having an appreciation thread. I just like interacting with members on a normal level since I am just a member with duties to the forum.

When I wrote staff/ member, I meant staff and member, not staff-member, sorry for the confusion!

 

[Honest]

So a feel good thread basically, Kura, that's open to everyone that can be about anyone? That's not a terrible idea, honestly. I don't see anything wrong with publicly showing appreciation or admiration towards any particular member.

 

[Nick]

I think that's a great idea and worth giving it a shot.

 

[Kura]

So a feel good thread basically, Kura, that's open to everyone that can be about anyone? That's not a terrible idea, honestly. I don't see anything wrong with publicly showing appreciation or admiration towards any particular member.

Yeah, kinda like Dear anonymous, but doesn't have to be anonymous but only good things can be said.. like "___ is really friendly with trades! Thanks for the awesome Kingler" or "I'd like to send my appreciation to ___ for welcoming me to the forums." Or whatever, really. I guess I can only see it getting messy if people start being like "write things about me!" or is a bit spammy like "I appreciate __ because of HIS AWESOMENESS" but I don't really see that happening all that much, and if it does, the postcount there doesn't matter anyway, so it's fine.
I don't even feel like every post has to be directed at a person.. it can be like "Thanks Pokecommunity, for letting me find lots of friends."
Like I said, I see it in blogs sometimes and it's super cute, so it'd be nice to extend it to people who don't have blogs.

People feeling left out may be something valid to bring up, but maybe that'll inspire them to be more helpful around the community? I guess if we see it going a bad route, we can always lock it and shut it down, no?

 

[Honest]

I like it a lot. It actually reminds me of a page on Facebook, a "compliments page" where people inbox compliments and the moderator posts it, and the whole thing turned out really nice and cute. What you're suggesting is basically the same thing, and I feel like it's definitely worth a shot. Worst come to worst, we can always close it.

The only think I'm not sure about is if it should be in OT. The "posts not being added" portion makes a lot of sense, but to me it just seems like a really weird place to put such a thread.

 

[Melody]

Actually OT wouldn't be a weird place to put it if you ask me, because it's an experimental thread, and it would require less moderation in OT than it would elsewhere.

I don't see them going to the trouble to sequester such a thread elsewhere in it's own sub-forum unless it becomes wildly popular and too much for OT. This isn't like Dear Anonymous, where it does NEED to be WATCHED CLOSELY because people might say something disrespectful, since it's almost the polar opposite to Dear Anonymous.

I'd love to have a thread to this effect. It doesn't matter if the thread allows me to drop a name or not anyway, and we could make it anonymous so no one feels left out if that's a serious concern we have. But it'd be nice to have a place to leave positive messages, and a good counterpoint to Dear Anonymous.

Heck, we could put a serious version of it right alongside Dear Anonymous in OVP if Sammi-san doesn't mind, and moderate it for spam. Then have a spammy version in OT for silly ones where we just want to say nice things for no real reason! :P

 

[Nihilego]

I'm reminded of something that used to be on a forum I'm a member of a long time back. Basically there was a section which was full of threads just asking the thread's creator questions about them, chatting about the answers, etc. If anyone's a Reddit user, sort of similar to IAMA threads. They weren't strictly member fanclubs per se since the aim of those threads was to get to know users rather than to kiss the ground they walk on, but I think you get the idea. They were essentially used to get to know interesting and influential members of the community as well as... just about anyone else, really.

Does this make sense, and how would anyone feel about such a thing on PokéCommunity? Or is it kinda over-the-top? Just a (probably horrible lol) suggestion which I may as well as throw out there.

 

[Kura]

I'm reminded of something that used to be on a forum I'm a member of a long time back. Basically there was a section which was full of threads just asking the thread's creator questions about them, chatting about the answers, etc. If anyone's a Reddit user, sort of similar to IAMA threads. They weren't strictly member fanclubs per se since the aim of those threads was to get to know users rather than to kiss the ground they walk on, but I think you get the idea. They were essentially used to get to know interesting and influential members of the community as well as... just about anyone else, really.

Does this make sense, and how would anyone feel about such a thing on PokéCommunity? Or is it kinda over-the-top? Just a (probably horrible lol) suggestion which I may as well as throw out there.

I like the idea of this a lot, though I kinda worry about the fact that that might specifically become like a popularity contest. Who defines who is "interesting" and "influential"? Aren't we all in our own way? I like IAMA threads on reddit because they can be quite interesting, but maybe we can open something like this up to the IRC.

Maybe we can make the IRC have like a sort of "QUESTIONS EVENT" every once in a while, where up to 3 (or however many) members sign up every Friday to answer questions about themselves on the IRC. That way the IRC gets activity, (I say three in case a couple get suddenly busy, or if the IRC is dead they can always ask questions to each other until someone new pops up,) and it can essentially be like the same thing and whatnot.
It'll take away the whole "My IAMA thread has more posts than yours" and take away who is allowed to have an IAMA thread or who might get ignored if they posted in one IAMA thread in favour for someone with more postcount or popularity or whatever.

Just trying a compromise about this too. What do you think?

 

[Nihilego]

...ignore the part where I said anything about interesting and influential, haha. The threads'd be for anyone to make so anyone who wants to make one, can make one. Idk why I said that.

As for the IRC idea - at first I saw those dreaded letters and thought it'd be terrible but I like it. It definitely eliminates the issues of the IAMA threads, but at the same time not as many people would be able to see it and after the event's done it's gone, so... idk. There are positives and negatives to both. I think that maybe, while the IRC idea really helps eliminate the issues with such threads, it's not as widely visible to the community as a thread is so maybe it'd not do the job as well as it could.

 

[Kura]

...ignore the part where I said anything about interesting and influential, haha. The threads'd be for anyone to make so anyone who wants to make one, can make one. Idk why I said that.

As for the IRC idea - at first I saw those dreaded letters and thought it'd be terrible but I like it. It definitely eliminates the issues of the IAMA threads, but at the same time not as many people would be able to see it and after the event's done it's gone, so... idk. There are positives and negatives to both. I think that maybe, while the IRC idea really helps eliminate the issues with such threads, it's not as widely visible to the community as a thread is so maybe it'd not do the job as well as it could.

Well it could be ongoing, and people can always sign up for the next week or they can sign up for multiple weeks if they wanted to. I'm sure it or the IRC would be visible if we made an announcement or if we put it on the header of Other Chat or so.

Maybe Celebrations section can then be turned into Celebrations and Community Events and it can be put there? Or have it as another subsection. I wouldnt want to make the sections messy but it's just a thought.

Otherwise the IAMA would have to have its own section like MemberClubs otherwise I can see it overpowering other sections with other discussion going on?

 

[Honest]

I like the idea of this a lot, though I kinda worry about the fact that that might specifically become like a popularity contest.

I think an idea like the one Razor mentioned would inevitable brings shades of popularity into play. I think it's sort of unavoidable, just think about it. A popular thread would mean the person is well known and complimented. If you're a person many people might not know about, then it makes perfect sense that yours won't be so replied too. Does that make sense?

Maybe we can make the IRC have like a sort of "QUESTIONS EVENT" every once in a while, where up to 3 (or however many) members sign up every Friday to answer questions about themselves on the IRC. That way the IRC gets activity, (I say three in case a couple get suddenly busy, or if the IRC is dead they can always ask questions to each other until someone new pops up,) and it can essentially be like the same thing and whatnot.
It'll take away the whole "My IAMA thread has more posts than yours" and take away who is allowed to have an IAMA thread or who might get ignored if they posted in one IAMA thread in favour for someone with more postcount or popularity or whatever.

Hmmmmm, I'm 50/50 on this idea. On one half, it solves the popularity issue that you brought up, but on the other, it also makes the thing turn into a game show of sorts. Wrong analogy, but it seems weird. There's also the fact that IRC is dead, but I guess with enough publicizing, we could go over that hill and finally give the IRC some well deserved activity. I like the idea more than I dislike it, that's for sure. It kind of feels like a PC event every week or something. :3

Actually, the more I think about it, the more I like it. =D